Over this last week I observed an English
classroom where the teacher utilized oral language in his classroom in a
positive and interesting way. In the class that I observed, they were reading Romeo and Juliet. The teacher had an
activity that he called the Verbal Volley. Zakk, the teacher, handed out a
worksheet with a list Shakespearean insults. The class then broke off into
pairs and they stood on the opposite sides of the room. The students then took
turns yelling the insults back and forth to one another. The students really
got into it and enjoyed this portion of the class a lot!
From the reading, I really liked the Mock
Trials idea. I think that one thing that would be fun would for the class to
hold a trial to determine who was to blame for Romeo and Juliet’s death. I
think that this technique would be really fun and appropriate for Zakk’s ninth
grade class. Other than that I think Zakk did a great job with his use of oral
language in his classroom.
I liked the ideas of how important questioning is within a classroom. One of my instructors said never stop questioning in classroom. You as a teacher should have a question for everything so students can find an answer. Questioning helps students to think. If we want to make the classroom more student driven then how can we lead the way without questioning? We want our students to be able to question things themselves so they can become life long learners.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like such a fun observation experience! What a great way to make Shakespeare exciting and really help the kids dive into the content. I love your idea of a mock trial. It would be fun to continue with the theme of having the kids use time appropriate language while arguing their view points.
ReplyDelete-Molly
That sounds like a blast! I went to Sky View High School and in my English 2200 class we did the same thing. It was so much fun and i still remember some of the insults! We called each others rooting hogs and scuts for quite some time afterwards. I think this approach is really helpful for students because they remember, it doesn't have to be insults either. I think that anything out of the ordinary helps students to remember what they are learning especially if it is oral.
ReplyDeleteHi Alex,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your posting. I like the "insults" approach too--especially for its motivational aspect. At the same time, I wonder if the teacher did something else to help the students think about the themes of Romeo and Juliet? For instance, maybe s/he could ask students to write their own questions that they want to debate and throw out to the class? Thanks again for this posting...I'm glad you saw some fun ideas to incorporate into your own teaching.